TV Review: Doctor Who – Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone

Many people rank Steven Moffat’s Blink as one of the best standalone episodes of Doctor Who. This is quite a bold statement considering the episode actually contains very little interaction with the Doctor and his companion at the time Martha Jones. The main draw for many fans was the chilling introduction of a new race of villains called the Weeping Angels, so called because of their resemblance to the creepy cemetery statues of the same name. Of all of the villains introduced in new Doctor Who, the Weeping Angels are pretty close to the only ones I would consider classic in a strict sense, as most of the others are definitely better for one-time appearances. This two-parter also features the Weeping Angels, and as such has large shoes to fill.

These episodes also mark the second appearance of a character that many assume is the Doctor’s future wife – River Song. In fact this episode is foreshadowed in Moffat’s last televised episodes Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead as River Song asks if they have “survived the crash of the Byzantium yet?” In typical Moffat Style, The Doctor and River have once again met “out of order” of each other, and River is as sassy as ever if not a bit more. A bit of light is shone on their relationship that almost leads me to believe that simply understanding the character as “the Doctor’s future wife” is far too easy, and is probably a red herring to their true relationship.

A group of military clerics is there to assist including the awesome Father Octavian pictured here.

The story follows the Doctor and Amy as they take a bit of a break from all the adventuring by visiting a museum. Pretty soon the Doctor discovers an odd artifact amongst all of the other typical museum findings – a flight recorder box with ancient Galiifreyan text written on it. This prompts the Doctor to do what anyone would do, steal the item from the museum. The black box, as it turns out, is a set of directions for the Doctor to Find River Song as she is pursued on a large ship called the Byzantium. The ship crashes and a very sensitive bit of “cargo” is let loose in a cave full of catacombs.

What follows is a two-parter, that I would say is one of the best, scariest episodes since the shows return in 2005. As with many Moffat episodes, it was very well done. The Angels are scarier than they were, as they have new abilities due to the unlimited power of the ship that crashed. This helps take a creepy villain, which would probably only appear in a few episodes, and makes it a villain that will last.

Now you can’t blink, look the angels in the eye, act like you can’t see them, and a laundry list of other things that make them creepy.

There are a lot of things I love about this episode, but talking about them would give far more spoilers than I like to do on this blog, maybe I’ll touch on it in an editorial later on. Even if the rest of the season sucks, and we look back at this episode, the season would be a classic.

Triangle Face Podcast

Brad is still not with us this week, meaning that we have another guest filled episode. This week’s show is yet another one featuring us telling stories of our past. This time, we aren’t discussing drunk stories, but stories about the time when we all lived in a terrible apartment that was about to fall […]

A listener asked us why we did not one, but TWO gaming episodes right before E3, we respond by doing yet another gaming episode to cover ourselves. Brad is off being a father or something, so we’re joined by The Ginger One himself, Jason Clark Triangle Face Podcast Ep 8 – Waiting for […]

This week the crew discusses the new X-Men film, X-men Days of Future Past. Do we discuss how the movie was? Do we discuss the travels of Ferdinand Magellan? Does Dave discover more ammo to combat Mike in his never-ending quest to dethrone Wolverine as top dog of the Marvel universe? We answer […]

Here is the second part of our long-winded discussion on video games. This time we take a step back to review a new interdependently-made role playing game called Siralim and attempt to give away some free stuff. That is, until our run-in with the fabled lawnmower man. Triangle Face Podcast Ep 6 – […]

This is the first half of a two-part discussion Brad, Dave, and Steve had about the state of gaming in 2014. They discuss good things, bad things, and what we are all looking forward to in the gaming world. Check back in a few days for more, as this one got a bit out of hand, […]

This week on Triangle Face Podcast, we will be discussing summer movies and more specifically the newest Godzilla movie. As you can imagine, this episode is going to be full of spoilers so listen at your own risk! Triangle Face Podcast Ep 4 – Deal With It Related articles Film Review: Godzilla (2014) Why [Spoiler] […]

Another few weeks have passed, and it’s time once again for another largely substandard episode of Triangle Face Podcast. This time the guys (and Sarah) tell stories of everyone’s favorite pastime – drinkin’ the booze. While some of us are too old for the party guy lifestyle of our youths, it’s fun to look back […]

In this episode, Stephen, Dave, and Brad discuss people that whine about books being turned into movies. They they do some whining themselves. Then they talk about obscure children’s books. All in all, nothing gets accomplished! Triangle Face Podcast Ep 2 – Danger in Quicksand Swamp Related articles Welcome to our page! 1984 Related Podcast I […]

On this episode, Dave, Mike, Steve, and Brad discuss a Stanley Kubrick related documentary called Room 237. This film is a HIGHLY acclaimed, and award winning film for some reason that our crew really does not enjoy all that much. Are there homoerotic erections everywhere? Minotaurs? Nazi Typewriters? The answer is NO! Triangle Face […]